[Photo Credit to Pixabay]

On Wednesday, April 1st, 2026, NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) finally launched the Artemis II lunar flyby mission from the Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Florida, USA.

The enormous orange and white rocket carried three Americans and one Canadian from Florida's Kennedy Space Center.

The rocket was 322 feet tall and 27.6 feet wide.

The astronauts who went to the moon are American Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch and includes Canadian, Jeremy Hansen.

 Wiseman is the captain and has been an astronaut since 2009.

The crew also includes Pilot Glover,  Mission Specialists Christina and Jeremy.

Wiseman, the mission commander said,  “We have a beautiful moonrise. We’re headed right at it.”

U.S. president Donald Trump cheered, ”our brave astronauts.”

Pilot Victor Glover remarked, “Great flying with you, Houston. Nice vehicle,”.

“We’re just getting started,” he added.

The astronauts were”safe, they’re secure, and they’re in great spirits.”

The rocket was approximately only 10 days away from arriving at the moon. 

By 12:30 on Saturday, the craft was only 168,564 miles away from Earth and 111,037 from the moon, moving at a speed of 2391 mph according to NASA's Artemis II live mission tracker. 

On the fourth day, the crews tested Orion’s systems and conducted missions as the craft went into the darker space.

The rocket is now in Earth’s orbit, and will remain there for a while to check a lot of things to make sure of some safeties because of the fact that this rocket is new.

They completed"proximity operations” demonstrations which tested the Orion capsules’ movements.

After the launch, a device NASA calls the Universal Waste Management System( toilet), the crew saw a problem.

The controller was broken.

After six hours of work, they finally successfully fixed the toilet by clearing the jammed fan.

When they neared the moon, Artemis 2 didn’t land on the moon, or enter orbit. They looped around the moon’s far side, collecting facts.

The Artemis craft studied the moon during the flight.

Upon completing the mission of searching for water on the moon and conducting observations, Artemis 2 began its trip back to the Earth.

When they were in the Earth’s upper atmosphere, it moved at a speed of 24,000mph(38,600km/h).

It also reached temperatures half as hot as the sun’s surface.

Their safe return clearly shows the next step of the Artemis program, which aims for landing on the moon.

The hot heat caused astronaut Integrity to lose contact with the mission control in Houston for six minutes.

“Houston, Integrity here. We hear you loud and clear,” cheered Reid Wiseman.

When they finally arrived on Earth, they were carefully transported to the USS John P Murtha, where they underwent medical checks.

They went to check their health because in space, the muscles weaken and bone lose density.  

From there, they flew back to the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston.

President of the U.S, Donald Trump welcomed the mission as “spectacular.”

In conclusion, it marked a historic moment to go to the moon for the first time in 54 years.